1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a course determination system installed on a vehicle, such as an automobile, and also relates to a driving assist system.
2. Description of Related Art
As an example of the related art, a system that determines a running course as a path along which the vehicle is able to run, and informs the driver of deviation of the vehicle from the determined course, or assists the driver in a driving operation for avoiding deviation from the course has been proposed. In a known method of determining the course along which the vehicle can run, a road marker or markers (such as a white line) as an indicator(s) indicative of a lane boundary or boundaries or an object or objects is/are detected, and the course is determined based on the result of the detection. Further, a grouping operation performed when two or more objects are detected has been proposed in which the two or more objects are recognized as a single object if the distance between the objects is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-030792 (JP-A-2003-030792)).
In the related art, it is not considered whether a pathway on which the vehicle can run is present between the two or more objects; therefore, when the driver attempts to cause the vehicle to enter the pathway, the driver may be informed of deviation of the vehicle from the current course, or an operation to assist the driver in a driving operation for returning the vehicle to the current course may be performed.